1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control device for a recording element array composed of plural solid-state recording elements such as light emitting elements arranged in an array, and an image forming apparatus for forming an image by such recording element array.
2. Related Background Art
There is already known an image forming apparatus provided with a printing head (recording control device) including a light emitting element array. The direction of array of the light emitting elements is usually taken in the main scanning direction perpendicular to the sub scanning direction, which is the conveying direction of the recording medium on which the recording is made.
In such conventional apparatus, the output image is compressed in the sub scanning direction when the process speed (for example the speed of the recording sheet in the conveying direction and/or the rotation speed of the photosensitive drum) is lowered.
Also the image density becomes higher in such case. Though such drawback in image density can be prevented by varying the high voltage outputs for latent image formation and for image development according to the process speed, the determination of such high voltage is difficult and results in an increase in the cost.
The object of the present invention is to resolve the drawbacks mentioned above.
The above-mentioned object can be attained, according to the present invention, by an image forming apparatus comprising:
a recording element array including plural recording elements arranged in an array;
image forming means for causing a relative movement between the recording element array and a recording medium thereby forming an image thereon;
drive means for driving the recording element array based on image data; and
duty control means for varying the recording duty of the recording elements according to the relative movement speed between the recording element array and the recording medium.
According to the present invention, there is also provided an image forming apparatus comprising:
a recording element array including plural recording elements arranged in an array;
image forming means for causing a relative movement between the recording element array and a recording medium thereby forming an image thereon;
memory means for storing image data;
drive means for driving the recording element array based on the image data read from the memory means; and
inhibition means for selectively inhibiting the recording operation by the image read from the memory means, according to the relative movement speed between the recording element array and the recording medium.
According to the present invention there is also provided an image forming apparatus comprising:
a recording element array including plural recording elements arranged in an array;
image forming means for causing a relative movement between the recording element array and a recording medium thereby forming an image thereon;
smoothing means for applying a smoothing process in the image data, according to the relative movement speed between the recording element array and the recording medium; and
drive means for driving the recording element array, based on the image data subjected to the smoothing process by the smoothing means.